Belichick's arrogant decision

Blog excerpt from views.washingtonpost.com/world-wide-wilbon

Ask yourself if Vince Lombardi, with his team leading by six points, would have gone for it on fourth and two from his own 28 with two minutes to play in the game? You think Don Shula would have made that call? Tom Landry. No, of course not.

Let's recap: Down six, on the road, you can force Peyton Manning to go 70 yards for the win if you punt. If you go for it and fail on fourth down, Manning needs just 29 yards to win the game. It's a no-brainer right? Ask yourself if Chuck Noll would have gone for it in such a situation. Joe Gibbs? Bill Walsh. No, of course not.

But no great coach, no head coach with multiple Super Bowl victories, would have made that call -- except the most arrogant great coach of them all, Bill Belichick. And the decision to try and pick up those two yards in Indianapolis on Sunday night instead of punting, fittingly, is the most arrogant end-of-game decision I've ever seen in 40-plus years of watching pro football.

Not surprisingly, Tom Brady said he loved the call; would you really expect the Golden Boy QB to publicly second-guess his coach in the moments immediately following one of the most dramatic endings in modern NFL history? But you'll forgive me if I take my cue from one of Belichick's former players, Rodney Harrison now of NBC's "Football Night in America," who has the guts to talk it like he played it. Harrison was honest enough to tell the viewers that his old coach, a man he respects and loves, made "the worst decision" he'd ever seen.

It was arrogant. It sounded logical enough when Belichick said later that he figured that one fourth-down conversion was going to win the game. The Patriots would make the fourth down, keep Manning on the bench, take a knee three times, then punt with 30 seconds left or whatever, and win the game.

See, the problem with that is fourth-and-anything is no gimme. Quarterbacks fumble snaps. Guards step on quarterbacks' feet. Backs miss blocks on blitzing linebackers. Receivers drop passes. Officials make bad spots. The other guy makes a great tackle. All the time. That's why coaches are so hesitant to go for it on fourth down even when they absolutely have to, even from the other side of midfield when they're trailing. They're loath to do it.

Belichick simply figured his play run by his guys was absolutely certain to pick up the necessary first-down yardage. Yeah, he wanted to keep Manning off the field, but I'd bet everything I own that was a secondary consideration. The Patriots D already had grabbed two interceptions off Manning in the game. And if you have that much respect for Manning, don't you want him to go 70 yards minimum to win the game?

Oh, this was Belichick having watched his team go up and down the turf in Indy, feeling like he did two years ago when the Patriots were undefeated going into the Super Bowl, saying to himself: "We control the events here. All of them." So he went for it.